(...I'll look into the newbtconf-related stuff after I get something
cooked up, I guess---and that will happen after I get something like NAT
going at home.  (^&  Thanks; the suggestion has been queued...)


> Another possibility... you said you could use dhcp at home and
> elsewhere on campus, but your office setup is statically addressed...
> do you have another machine on your office network on which you could
> set up a DHCP server, set to only respond to your laptop's ethernet
> address, and to hand out that static IP address?

I'm afraid not.  If I had administrative control over an office machine, I
wouldn't be bringing in a laptop.  (^&  (As a grad student, I share an
office.)

I'll try to get my present idea of pinging to work.  Technically, it seems
sound, and I can reasonably count on nothing changing under my feet.

(Also, presently, I don't use DHCP anywhere.  If I _were_ to jack into
some(?) other networks, the math/natural-sciences sysadmin told me that
I'd have to use DHCP.  But I've had no reason to do that, nor have I set
up DHCP on my home network.  DHCP was mentioned as a spectre looming in
the distance; I'd like to at least consider an automatic configuration
method that would Just Work in a DHCP environment as well as any of the
static ones that I may know about.)


Thanks for the suggestions.


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu